This invention relates generally to machines for filling cloth bodies with cloth stuffing or filling material and specifically to machines for filling sleeping bags, comforters and the like.
Generally speaking, such machines are known in the prior art. See for example the apparatus for packaging a soft resilient foam body disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,693,304 issued to H. C. Davis, et al. on Nov. 2, 1954. This machine compresses the sides of a rectangular foam mattress to reduce its width while at the same time movably inserting the foam mattress into a container spread over a pair of stationary plates. The plates contain endless belt conveyors which advance the foam body into the container which is held stationary during the filling process.
See also U.S. Pat. No. 2,749,690 issued to A. Q. Bridges et al. on June 12, 1956 which discloses a mattress filling machine wherein filling material is forced in a compressed condition into a ticking applied over the outside of a stationary spout. Movable endless chains located on each side of the spout carry the filling into the ticking in a compressed state. U.S. Pat. No. 932,693 issued to F. Franke on Aug. 31, 1909 discloses a mattress stuffer which employs a plunger for pushing a bat of filler material into a tick.
Another such prior art machine is the electrically operated cushion filling machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,509,771 issued to M. H. Lang on May 30, 1950 wherein filler material is compressed within a receptacle to permit ease of slipping a cushion over one end of the receptacle. An electrically operated plunger forces the filler into the cushion casing and ejects the filled cushion from the machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,319,394 issued to L. Talaly et al. on May 16, 1967 discloses a machine for packaging resilient cellular foam material which employs means for compressing the foam vertically and for advancing the same into a package while at the same time advancing the package over the compressed foam, the package being advanced toward and over the compressed foam at a slower rate of speed than the filler is being advanced into the package.
See also U.S. Pat. No. 3,783,578 issued to A. L. Willis et al. on Jan. 8, 1974 which shows means for compressing a resilient filler and for advancing the same into a stationarily held package, after which the compression forces are released to eject the filler into the bag and eject the filled bag from the machine.
Specifically with regard to machines for filling sleeping bags and comforters, one such apparatus is manufactured by ABM Industries, Inc., 1306-12 South Pulaski Road, Chicago, Illinois 60623. This prior art machine employs a series of elongated fingers disposed side-by-side over a frame, which fingers are movably mounted on tracks along the frame to advance and retract into a spout fixedly attached to a table remote with respect to the frame containing the fingers. One difficulty encountered in the use of this assembly is that the spout is attached to a table separate and apart from the frame containing the fingers, requiring considerable floor space not only when the machine is in use such that the fingers are advanced beyond the machine frame through the spout, but also when the machine is not in use. Another disadvantage of this machine is that the spout, being remote from the fingers, can not be moved toward and over the fingers to save additional factory floor space as can be accomplished by one of the embodiments of my invention.
By means of my invention, therefore, these and other difficulties previously encountered with prior art filling machines are substantially overcome.